With the increase in storage capacity of hard disk drives and the prevalence of optical CD and DVD drives, users now can store their entire musical libraries on their personal computer (PC). For example, various software programs such as iTunes (offered by Apple Computer) allow a user to load musical content from CDs, store it on the computer's hard disk drive, organize the different content, and then play the music on the PC or burn all or part of the musical collection onto a CD or DVD. Users also can transfer the musical files to other devices, such as an iPod (offered by Apple Computer) or an MP3 player. These transfers typically require a direct, hardwired connection between the PC and the device, such as through a USB cable.
In recent years, mobile handsets (such as cellular phones and PDAs) have evolved beyond mere telephone and data collection devices. For example, many cellular phones now have sophisticated display screens and audio capabilities. Various companies (including mSpot, Inc., the assignee of this application), offer audio and video content that is “streamed” to the cellular phone using a wireless cellular network. This allows cellular phone users to listen to music or other audio content and watch movies or other video content on their cellular phones. However, the user's choices are limited to the content offered by the provider.
The proliferation of various types of digital content (files, music, text files, blogs, video files, etc.) has made the process of identifying each piece of content more difficult and thus there is a need for a system and method to identify each piece of content.